


Written in Code

by lumassen



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-01
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:47:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25656886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lumassen/pseuds/lumassen
Summary: As a technician in charge of maintaining and repairing the androids for the firm that he works for, Berwald's life is mostly consumed by computers and AI.Over time he becomes attached to one android in particular, the Manual Operative android who he nicknames Timo, and saves it from being scrapped, risking his job and livelihood. Once Berwald begins to work on re-programming Timo he starts to realise that there's more hidden within his coding than he first thought.
Relationships: Finland/Sweden (Hetalia), Norway & Sweden (Hetalia)
Comments: 18
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1.

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for any typo's, I'm very bad at proof reading. If you spot anything let me know and I'll fix it!

** Chapter 1. **

The room was stuffy. A bead of sweat dripped from Berwald’s forehead and onto his hand as he sat hunched over his desk, but he didn’t dare put down his tools to wipe his brow. The microprocessor in the clamp before him was tiny, fiddly, and ridiculously expensive, and so Berwald pursed his lips while he tried to keep his hand as stable as possible as he soldered the last wire down. Once it was in place, he glanced to his left and waited with bated breath until the green light on the monitor of his computer screen blinked to life.

‘ _System Online_.’ the synthetic voice of the software confirmed, and he sat back in his chair, finally dragging his sleeve across his forehead and exhaling sharply. Berwald had been sitting in his chair so long in the same position, focusing on such tiny details that all of a sudden the room around him seemed too big as he glanced at the clock. 3:37pm. He stood up and walked over to the sink in the corner of his lab to wash his hands and splash a little cold water on his face. He still had just under an hour of his shift left, yet felt tired and ready for home already. 

Berwald Oxenstierna was a Technical Operations Mechanic for a large firm, Avipol, that manufactured and designed aircraft parts, yet he didn’t work on the parts, nor anything to do with aviation in fact. None of the humans did. No, he was part of a small team of mechanics that saw to and maintained the androids that built the parts. It was the way forward, or so they were told, and the world was quickly changing to welcome androids alongside humans in any way possible. It made sense though. A team of only 10 mechanics looking after 118 androids cost the firm virtually nothing in terms of salaries and manual labour, and the androids were programmed so thoroughly that errors were rarely made when it came to production, cutting losses due to manual error pretty much down to zero.

There was a knock at the door just as Berwald was drying his face on a paper towel.

“Berwald, do you have a minute?” Ludwig’s voice carried through the door.

Picking his glasses up from the back of the sink and sliding them back on his face, Berwald crossed the room and opened the door to find Ludwig standing in the corridor, a flat bed trolley just behind him with an android lay on it beneath a white sheet.

“System error. Malfunction.” it repeated over and over, and Ludwig looked at Berwald with a strained smile as he slicked back a stray hair that had fallen in his face,

“It’s T1. Again.” he said, talking loudly over the android, and Berwald stepped back and held the door open for Ludwig to wheel the trolley inside the lab. 

Over the past couple of months, Berwald had worked on this particular android a lot, and it was pretty much a given now that if it shorted out again Ludwig would bring it straight to Berwald for him to fix.

One of T1’s arms hung loosely, dangling over the side of the trolley while the other stuck straight up in the air, tenting the sheet.

“What happened?” Berwald asked as he closed the door and Ludwig stopped the trolley in the middle of the room, putting the brake on with his foot.

“It was down in the warehouse moving some boxes of 787 wing bolts when it’s arm gave way again and it dropped them. There wasn’t any damage to the goods thankfully, but Yao doesn’t think it’s worth wasting time on a repair again. So he’s asked if you’ll just scrap it this time?” 

Ludwig leant against the handles of the trolley and adjusted his tie as he spoke, and Berwald nodded reluctantly.

“Want me to save any parts?” he said, and Ludwig shook his head.

“No, Yao didn’t mention anything. It’s an old model, and they’ll probably get upgraded soon anyway so I wouldn’t worry about it. Just scrap the lot, unless there’s anything you feel we should salvage of course. Right, I’ll leave you to it.”

The room would have fallen into a slightly awkward silence as Ludwig reached for the door if it weren’t for T1’s repeated malfunction message, and Berwald waited until the door had closed behind Ludwig and he couldn’t hear his footsteps in the corridor any longer before he pulled the sheet away and looked down into the android’s face.

It’s body was still and seized up, eyes staring blankly at nothing in particular, and it’s mouth couldn’t move to sync up with saying the words that played from it’s voice bank. Berwald could hear the broken motor in the androids left arm whirring away as he leaned over it and found the activation switch behind T1’s ear.

Wrapping his fingers around it’s wrist on the outstretched arm so he could lower it, Berwald pressed and held down the switch for a couple of seconds before T1’s eyes closed, the malfunction message stopped and it’s body went limp while it powered it down. Then, as he was laying it’s arm gently down onto the trolley beside it, Berwald couldn’t help but feel a little sad.

“You’ve gotten yourself into a mess now haven’t you, Timo?” he muttered to the android as he sighed and took a seat on his chair, wheeling across the floor to the desk and logging onto the mainframe to access T1’s data file. He’d gotten the nickname ‘Timo’ from the code printed on the back of it’s neck - T1MO. T1 was it’s unique identification code and MO stood for Manual Operative. 

Scrolling through the list of Manual Operatives in alphabetical order, Berwald found T1’s file and clicked on it, bringing up the code. Then he stood up again to gather the wires that he would need to reset and wipe Timo’s system. 

It had been about 8 months since Timo first suffered a malfunction and was brought to Berwald, and today marked the tenth time in those 8 months that T1 was back in his lab with a similar problem. Over time, Berwald had grown fond of Timo in a way, and had a habit of speaking to the android as he worked. Because Timo’s comprehension of words and sentences were limited compared to the more advanced models, Berwald found that he would confide in Timo to get things off his chest without the worry that Timo could talk back or remember what he’d said. It gave Berwald the feeling of speaking his mind to someone. Being surrounded by more androids than humans on a daily basis over the years, Berwald slowly began to become used to the lack of human interaction, using models like Timo to stop him feeling lonely.

Deep down, Berwald knew that Timo was only a machine and had no ability to know that it was about to be scrapped, but he felt his heart sinking as he turned back to face him as he lay peacefully on the trolley, cables in hand. He’d only ever had to completely scrap one other android before, though thankfully it had been one that Berwald had never interacted before. Still, it had been sad, especially as it was a more advanced model that could vaguely comprehend what had happened to it, but Timo was almost like a friend, and Berwald sighed again as he lifted up T1’s shirt and began to insert the various wires and cables into the ports at the side of it’s torso to connect it to the mainframe.

Once they were connected, Berwald looked over his shoulder to check Timo had successfully paired to the computer by squinting at the computer screen until he could see the box confirming the sync appear. Now that access was granted, all Berwald had to do was push a button on his keyboard to delete the data from T1’s microprocessor and that would be that. In his mind, it was the same as putting a sick animal to sleep, but of course machines couldn’t feel. Despite this though, Berwald wanted to at least speak to Timo one last time.

Peeling off his lab coat, Berwald hung it haphazardly on the back of his chair and rolled his sleeves up to his elbows before leaning over once more to find Timo’s activation switch. At first nothing happened when he pressed it, and Berwald grew concerned that T1 had shorted out completely, but after to-ing and fro-ing between his computer, deleting error code then trying again, on the third try T1 re-booted and its eyes opened. It took a couple of seconds for it to map Berwalds face and recognise him, but then its eyes lit up purple, signalling that it had securely bonded with him.

“Multiple faults detected. Activating hard reset.” T1 said, though this time its mouth moved along with its words which was a good sign. Berwald straightened up and observed as Timo lay almost motionless apart from when its fingers on his left arm twitched every couple of seconds as it attempted to re-boot that part of its body. Unlike the more advanced androids that Avipol had, Timo’s face and neck were the only part of it that had a silicone covering and human-like features, yet it had no hair and the rest was just exposed wiring and carbon fibre, almost skeletal looking.

“I am experiencing an error with my motor functionality, but my systems are otherwise stable. Re-booting.” T1 said again, then its head slowly turned to face Berwald and a smile appeared on its face.

“Hello B-E-R-W-A-L-D. It’s nice to see you. I am in repair mode and awaiting command.” 

Berwald smiled back at the androids greeting, still amused with the fact that Timo’s processing system wasn’t advanced enough to create words outside of its programmed vocabulary, and so when he’d asked it to call him by his name instead of ‘Operations Technician’, it could only spell it out. 

“Hello Timo. Nice to see you too. Can you sit up?” Berwald asked as he wheeled his chair across the room so that he could sit beside T1. Timo obeyed the command, raising its torso first, then shifting so that its legs dangled off the trolley and it was facing Berwald. Berwald could see that it had no use of its left arm at all now as it hung limply in it’s socket, but at least it wasn’t causing a malfunction anymore.

“I am experiencing an error with my motor functionality.” it repeated, and Berwald nodded in acknowledgement, humming to himself as he worked at unbuttoning its shirt so that he could take a better look. 

“Can you scan for the cause of the error?” Berwald asked as he eased the shirt off, lifting T1’s left arm through the arm hole before letting it drop again by its side.

“I am unable to detect the cause.” Timo confirmed, and Berwald sighed, pinching at the bridge of his nose. Obviously Avipol had no use for an android that couldn’t use its arm without shorting out or malfunctioning, and Berwald had lost count of the amount of things he’d tried in order to fix T1.

“Are you sure? Can you try again?” Berwald pressed, and there was a short pause,

“I apologise, but I am still unable to detect the cause.”

Running a hand through his hair, Berwald paced the floor in front of T1 for a moment, watching out of the corner of his eye as Timo’s head moved to follow him up and down before stopping in front of it. 

“Don’t apologise, I’m the one who’s sorry. Stand up please.” he said, and Timo again obeyed, slowly touching its feet to the tiled floor of the lab and straightening up. 

“Do you remember coming here? Do you remember me?” Berwald asked as he opened a drawer in his desk and rummaged around, turning his back on T1.

“Apologies, I don’t understand the question.” 

Once he’d found what he was looking for, Berwald closed the drawer with his hip and turned back to face Timo.

“How many times have you been to this location? Who am I?” he said, rephrasing the question,

“I have been within these coordinates 11 times. This is the technicians laboratory. You are Operations Technician 0605, but you have requested that I refer to you as B-E-R-W-A-L-D.”

Berwald knew that Timo could store data about places that it had been and had facial recognition, yet it couldn’t understand that this information was something that it _remembered_ when asked to provide that information. It knew the answer to his question, yet didn’t understand the more human way of how Berwald had asked it the first time. He hoped that this might make it easier to deactivate Timo, but now Berwald couldn’t help but think if it had any of the one sided conversations they’d had stored within its data too.

After squeezing the stress ball that he’d taken from the desk drawer a couple of times in his hand, Berwald tossed it in T1’s direction without warning and watched as the android reacted quickly and caught it in his right hand. 

“You dropped this.” it said, and once more Berwald couldn’t help but be endeared by the lack of words that Timo was programmed with in order to properly react. He stepped forward and took the ball from Timo’s outstretched arm. 

“I didn’t drop it, I tossed it at you. Catch it again, but this time use only your left arm.” Berwald commanded, wanting to test if the android had any use of it's arm at all, and waited until Timo’s eyes flashed green to signal that it’d registered the command.

Throwing it again, Berwald was expecting T1 to not react and be unable to catch the ball, but instead he was shocked and felt his pulse quicken when Timo raised his right hand again to catch it, violating the command that it had just been given.

He stood and stared at the android, his mouth gaping, “Timo, I said your left arm. You were given a command...” he said slowly, completely taken aback as he pushed his glasses further up his nose and didn’t break eye contact with T1. 

“I am experiencing an error with my motor functionality.” was all Timo said in response, and Berwald narrowed his eyes. All androids were supposed to obey commands no matter what, the only exception being if that command endangered the life of a human or would damage equipment more valuable than itself. It was as though Timo _knew_ that it wouldn’t be able to catch the ball, and acted on impulse.

“Surely not…” Berwald muttered to himself under his breath as he shook his head. Although he was a skilled mechanic, he didn’t know much about android cognitive behaviour, that was the programmers job. But what he did know was that while Timo couldn’t function as a Manual Operative without a functioning left arm, he wasn’t damaged enough to be scrapped. Far from it.

Berwald tore his eyes away from T1’s for a split second to look at the clock before he returned his gaze. It was 3:57, and soon his shift would finish. The room had now gone from feeling too big to feeling like a tiny box, the walls closing in on Berwald as his palms grew clammy and he swallowed thickly. What he was about to do could get him fired, or worse imprisoned, if anyone at Avipol found out, but the longer Berwald looked at Timo as it still before him with its arm still outstretched offering the stress ball back to him, the harder it was to talk himself out of it. Berwald had to save him.

-01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011-

Just over half an hour later, Berwald stood watching the seconds tick by on the clock, tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for it to hit 4:30 on the dot. 

He’d asked T1 to lie back down again on the trolley before powering him down and setting to work removing his arm completely, hoping to stop any malfunctions that might cause fatal damage to Timo’s microprocessor as he removed all tracking data from his code. The last thing Berwald wanted was Avipol working out that T1 hadn’t been scrapped, and had instead been stolen by one of their technicians.

Berwald couldn’t help but laugh at himself in disbelief at what he was actually doing as he’d wiped T1’s existence from the mainframe. He’d waited until the live online monitoring systems went from displaying 118 active androids to 117 before disconnecting him from the computer and shutting it down. 

As soon as the clock finally struck the half hour, Berwald flicked the lights off and propped the door open. Timo was covered back up again with the white sheet, and Berwald eased the trolley out of the lab and kicked away the door wedge with his foot as he wheeled Timo out into the corridor, letting the door slam closed behind him. He was conscious of the fact that other technicians had different shifts to him and would obviously still be milling around, and so he walked swiftly, pushing the trolley in front of him and hoped that no one came out of their lab and ran into him. It was too risky pushing Timo out to his car as anyone could see him and question why he was struggling to lift a 150 kg android into the trunk, so Berwald would use the delivery shaft. Luckily the scrap heap was by the delivery shaft, so if anyone were to wonder why he’d swiped his ID card to access that room he could say that he was disposing of Timo as requested.

To help cover his tracks, Berwald had logged T1’s arm as if it were him as a whole, so on the statistics report that Avipol would receive at the end of the month from the scrapyard would have him listed on there as ‘T1MO’. Now he just hoped that he could pull it off.

He could see his hands trembling as he reached the end of the corridor and stopped in front of the door to the delivery shaft and swiped his card through the fob system. The automatic door swung open with his granted access, and Berwald felt his heart pounding as he pushed Timo forward into the room. He waited until the door had closed behind them before taking T1’s left arm from underneath the sheet and quickly crossed the room to the scrapheap. It was like a huge industrial skip, and Berwald punched in his ID code into the computer system on the side of the metal container to print off the barcode that he’d made back in the lab that was needed to identify any parts or machines being disposed of. Then, he stuck it to the mechanical arm and tossed it in. There was no going back now. 

It had been a struggle getting Timo into the trunk of his car once Berwald had brought it around to the delivery shaft. T1 was heavy and at first Berwald was certain that he was absolutely screwed until he had the idea to put Timo across the back seats of the car instead of trying to heave him over the lip of the trunk. Berwald was sweating profusely by the time he’d gotten home and dragged Timo back out from the car and into the house. It was only when he set him down as gently as he could on a chair at the kitchen table did he fully comprehend what he’d done. 

The temptation to activate Timo right away was almost too great for Berwald to ignore, but he needed to run a diagnostics check before he did absolutely anything to make sure that once booted up Timo couldn’t give off a location signal to alert Avipol. Although Berwald was 99% sure that he’d deleted all of the code, it was better to be safe than sorry. 

-01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011-

It was dark outside and had been for at least a few hours by the time Berwald’s eyes were beginning to hurt from looking at his laptop screen and his fingers ached from typing. Not only had Berwald found and deleted all of Timo’s code that tied him to Avipol, he’d also purchased a second hand voice bank that he’d come across on a website while searching for programs to install to perform a security sweep of T1’s microprocessor to check for any final traces of code that would give the android a much larger understanding of words and interactions. If he really did plan on keeping Timo, he wanted to at least be able to upgrade his program.

The voice bank was a huge file, bigger than he'd thought until he’d purchased it, and so Berwald would have to leave Timo plugged into his laptop overnight while it installed. There were wires all over the kitchen and the table was covered in cups of half drunk coffee and empty plates from where Berwald had eaten dinner while he worked and tried to keep himself awake. It was nearly midnight, and as much as Berwald wanted to sit up all night and watch the progress bar as Timo’s new voice bank and comprehension program installed, he could barely keep his eyes open as he dragged himself upstairs.

He stripped himself down to just his boxers, leaving his work uniform in a pile on the floor. At first all Berwald could see in his mind’s eye when his head hit the pillow was the image of Timo slumped in the chair downstairs, wires trailing across the floor. Despite being exhausted he couldn’t fall asleep and instead just stared at the ceiling, his thoughts buzzing around in his head.

He’d made a mistake, a big one. T1 was just a machine, and yet Berwald had felt sorry for it. He also couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that Timo had disobeyed his command. Did that count as disobeying, the fact that the android had worked out that it couldn’t catch the ball with it’s left arm? Or was it just clever programming?

Berwald hadn’t remembered falling into a dreamless sleep until a loud crash from downstairs caused him to wake up and sit bolt upright in bed. Fumbling for his glasses on the nightstand, Berwald read the alarm clock and saw that it was a couple of minutes past 4 in the morning. He sat in the middle of the bed, his ears straining to listen for another sound, but he couldn’t hear anything other than the sound of his own blood rushing around his head. Now that he was thinking about it, Berwald couldn’t remember checking if the back door was locked before he came to bed, he was too preoccupied with...

 _Timo_. 

What if Avipol had realised what he’d done, and they were breaking into his house? Or what if they’d called the police? Throwing off the duvet, Berwald sank his feet into the plush rug on the floor and crept across the room, picking up his hockey stick from where it stood in the corner and slowly inched into the hallway. His pulse was quick, and he jumped and pressed himself against the wall when he heard another crash, his heart racing. Someone was at the bottom of the stairs. Screwing his eyes shut for a minute, Berwald was debating going back to grab his phone to call the police himself, but wasn’t sure how he would even begin to explain why he had an android in his kitchen. 

Swallowing his fears, Berwald tiptoed across the landing and stood at the top of the stairs peering down into the darkness. He could just about make out a figure at the bottom standing in front of the mirror on the wall. Taking in a breath, Berwald raised the hockey stick above his head, bracing himself, before thundering down the stairs and lunging forward to reach the lightswitch when he reached the bottom, flooding the hallway with light.

He was just about to swing the hockey stick over the head of his intruder when he faltered and nearly dropped it, stepping back up a couple of steps when he realised who it was.

Timo had somehow activated himself without human command, and was standing in front of the mirror, his palm pressed flat against the glass while he stared at his reflection. He still had all of the wires attached to him and had dragged Berwald's laptop through the house and pulled his charging port from the socket on the wall, a tangled mess of cables traipsing through the hall. 

Berwalds mouth was dry as a shiver ran down his spine, and at first his voice only came out as nothing more than a whisper as he tried to ask Timo what he was doing. He cleared his throat and tried again,

"How... How have you activated? What are you doing?" he stammered, and Timo only looked away from the mirror, keeping his hand pressed against his own reflection. 

Berwald felt his heart in his mouth as his eyes met with Timo's and he looked at the expression on the androids features, one that it would never normally be able to display. A look of confusion.

"Hello Berwald. Where am I?"

-01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've realised that this is the first fic I've written solely from Berwald's POV that's not just a one shot :O
> 
> Anyway, this opening chapter might be a bit clunky, but this is the best that it's gonna get. I got the idea for this fic in a discord chat, and mainly have grimanonymousrex and puffintalia to thank!
> 
> I hope you like it, I plan to have this fic take place over ten chapters so it's not going to be suuuper long, but I'm pleased with my plot ideas and can't wait to share the rest with you!
> 
> I'm aware that I already have so many AU's but please don't worry I do plan on continuing them all lol
> 
> Thanks for reading, and please let me know if you have any feedback as I'm aware this is a little different to what I usually write.
> 
> -lumassen x


	2. Chapter 2.

**Chapter 2.**

To say that Berwald had grown used to the feeling of interacting with something that looked and sounded human - but was something different entirely - Timo certainly was a curve ball.

He watched as the expression on Timo's face fell away and the usual placidness returned that was standard for all androids to display. Then the system function indicators at the base of his neck began to flash red as he went rigid and dropped his hand from the mirror that it swung by his side and clacked against the carbon fibre.

"System error. Unexpected code. Re-booting." 

Timo said as he stared blankly ahead, eyes glazed over, and Berwald could hear the buzzing of his inner mechanics. Once he'd re-booted and seemed to have cleared the error, the programmed smile that he always wore returned to his face,

"Hello Berwald," he said again, "I detect that my systems have been upgraded and I am ready to learn. What is my purpose?"

Lowering the hockey stick gently and stepping down the last two stairs, Berwald stopped in front of Timo, all trace of the look of confusion on his face gone as if he'd only imagined it.

"You- The mirror-" he stammered, pointing loosely at the mirror on the wall that he'd caught Timo looking at himself in before he moved the same hand to run his fingers through his hair and shook his head,

"Nevermind. How do you still know my name? I wiped your systems and all traces of Avipol..." 

Berwald could feel his heart hammering in his chest. He was _sure_ that he'd removed everything from Timo's microprocessor that tied him to Avipol and the fact that he was a Manual Operative. This explained why he was asking what his assigned role or purpose was, what he was built for, so how he still had his name and facial recognition on record stumped him.

"On the 27th of August 2019 at 1308 hours you requested for me to call you Berwald."

Timo said, and Berwald dragged his hand over his face. Whatever it was that had possessed him yesterday to think that 'saving' a faulty T-model was a good idea was long gone as he bent down to pick up his laptop from the floor, cursing through his teeth at the sight of the cracked screen.

"There are alternative n-names that I could use if you would prefer."

Berwald was only paying half of his attention to Timo as he began to collect the wires up that he had trailed through the house, 

"Oh yeah? What are they?" he said under his breath, wondering if he should have just let T1 be scrapped after all,

"Li-nn-ea and Pet-er."

Straightening up so quickly that he nearly fell over, Berwald grabbed hold of the bottom of the stair rail and stared at Timo,

"What- How'd you know those names-" he began, though stopped himself when Timo's voice began jittering and Berwald could see the system error warning lights flashing red again,

"S-System Overload. Corrupted File-File. System Overlo-ad."

Reaching forward quickly and placing a hand behind Timo's ear, Berwald held his finger down on his activation switch and watched as his eyes closed as he powered down. The various lights that covered the components across T1's body faded until the only one that remained on was the standby indicator beside his ear that was slowly pulsing blue. His head plate was warm to the touch as though his operating system had overheated, probably causing the overload.

Berwald stood for a moment, broken laptop in one hand while the other remained pressing down Timo's activation switch until he sighed and let it drop by his side. He stared into the face of the android as he stood in standby mode, wires still trailing from the ports in his torso and a gaping hole where his shoulder socket was devoid of his left arm. To most people, especially in this state, Timo was nothing but a pile of junk and scrap metal. Berwald had worked on some incredibly advanced androids during his time at Avipol, yet something about Timo fascinated him more than they did. 

Aware of the fact that Timo had somehow self activated, Berwald cautiously clicked his fingers in front of his face and tapped him in the shoulder to see if there was a reaction, but Timo didn't move. Stepping through the tangled mess of wires Berwald picked his way into the living room and whipped the blanket off the back of the couch then draped it over Timo as he dragged him across the wooden floor of the hallway to the corner by the side cabinet. 

The sky outside was beginning to turn from black to navy as dawn grew nearer, and Berwald stifled a yawn as he took himself back upstairs. Then, as he reached the top of the landing, he stole a glance at Timo standing stationary at the bottom of the stairs. The way that he was hidden beneath the blanket he could have easily been mistaken for a human by his outline, but of course that was far from what he was. Berwald shook his head as he entered his bedroom and slammed the door closed behind him. Timo was just a machine.

-01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011-

“Good Morning, Welcome to Avipol.” 

The concierge android greeted Berwald as it did every morning as he hurried through the front doors, shrugging his lab coat on as he walked briskly through the corridor. Berwald had been so tired after last night's events that he’d slept through his alarm after finally getting to sleep only a few hours ago. 

He hadn’t dared to power Timo up again, and spent half the night tossing and turning and debating whether or not to bring him back with him to Avipol and throw him on the scrap heap, but something stopped him yet he couldn’t put his finger on it. The fact that T1 had managed to keep the names of two people in his database that Berwald had mentioned while talking to him like he had done when he was working on fixing him, at this point, was unexplainable. But Timo was an android, a fabrication of a human with no ability to think or feel, so there _had_ to be an explanation.

Punching in the code to his lab, Berwald swung the door open but stopped in the doorway when his eyes met with those of a blonde man sat at his desk.

"Uh, Mornin'?" he said, stepping into the room a little cautiously despite this being his lab. 

There was an E-model android in the middle of the room that also turned to look at him, a robotic smile on its face, and Berwald wasn't sure what surprised him more; seeing an E-type in the flesh or the fact that there was a stranger at his computer.

The man stood up, the chair wheeling back a little as he pressed the backs of his knees to it. He wore a lab coat too, and Berwald noticed the red visitors lanyard around his neck as he approached him.

"Hi, sorry for the informal introduction, but my name is Sigurd. I'm from the manufacturer." he said to Berwald, tilting his head in the direction of the E-model behind them as he held out his hand. Gently nudging the door closed with his foot, Berwald shook Sigurds hand before swiping his key card through the clock in system on the wall.

"Ludwig said you were running late so asked me to just make a start until you got here. I'll be shadowing you for a couple of weeks." Sigurd continued, his voice flat and monotone yet still warm sounding.

"Really? First I've heard of it. Shadowing me how?" Berwald asked as he approached the android and watched as it's eyes quickly flashed green as it scanned and registered his face faster than he'd seen any android do before.

"Hello, I'm Eduard. It's nice to meet you." It said with a smile, eyes turning back to their steely blue colour. Unlike T1 or any of the other androids at Avipol, Eduard had a head of fine blonde hair and silicone skin that stretched over his framework, hiding all the wires and components and carbon fibre that made him up. He was from a new line of the most human-like androids on the market, yet the light in his eyes and the joint seams in his silicone were still an obvious give away that he was still just a machine. Berwald had seen androids like this online and on forums, but didn't expect to come into work late on a Friday to find one standing in his lab. 

"Impressive." Berwald said as he turned to look over his shoulder at Sigurd. 

A small smile tugged at the corner of Sigurds mouth as he tucked his hair behind his ear and straightened up, squaring his shoulders.

"Thanks. Avipol has ordered 6 of them. And I'll be shadowing you while I'm over here working on the project to introduce the E-models into the Aero engineering team. I'm a programmer you see, so I don't know much about mechanics." Sigurd answered Berwalds question from earlier with a shrug. 

"So… what'll I do?" Berwald raised an eyebrow, and Sigurd just blinked at him, seemingly confused.

"Well, between programming the E-models with Avipol code I'll be assisting you with your work." he said as though it were obvious, then paused to whet his lips and shrank a little under Berwalds furrowed brows, "Didn't Ludwig tell you?" 

Berwald shook his head and sighed, 

"No. He didn't."

As much as Berwald was intrigued by the idea of getting to work with the E-models, or at least watching them be programmed, he wasn’t so thrilled at the idea of working with someone else - especially on such short notice. He became a technician specifically because he wasn’t particularly good at working with other people. Other humans. 

There was an awkward silence between them as Berwald quickly cast his gaze over Sigurd, squinting at his lanyard and his ID card attached to it.

_Sigurd Thomassen - Eurotech - Lead Programmer_

“The file upload is complete, Mr Thomassen. Shall I run the programme?” Eduard said from behind them, breaking the silence, and Berwald turned on the spot to look at him, his eyes flickering between him and the computer on his desk displaying rows upon rows of code.

Sigurd looked hesitant as Berwald caught his eye, though his gaze remained cool as he loosened the knot on his tie.

“Excuse me for a minute.” Berwald muttered, stepping around Sigurd and leaving the room, letting the door slam behind him as he stalked down the corridor to Ludwigs office, his pace brisk. He rapped twice on the door then watched and waited for the light on the lock to turn from red to green, allowing him permission to enter before he opened it.

“Ah. Berwald,” Ludwig said, looking up from his paperwork for a brief moment before lowering his eyes again as though he were expecting him, “take a seat. What can I do for you?”

Crossing the room, Berwald sat on the edge of the seat opposite Ludwig and waited for him to finish writing and put his pen down before he spoke.

“Mr Thomassen?” he questioned, getting straight to the point while raising his brow and leaning back into the chair.

Ludwig sighed and took his reading glasses off, folding them neatly and placing them on the desk between them.

“Look, I’m sorry to spring this upon you. I was going to tell you this morning first thing but you were late and I had no time to change the plans before Sigurd got here.” Ludwig leant forward, leaning his arms on the desk and clasping his hands in front of him,

“You’re one of our best technicians, and Eurotech are willing to sign a large contract with us if these first six E-models prove to be a success. Mr Thomassen is here for 5 weeks to oversee their introduction to Aero Design. He’s one of the best programmers out there, and has even worked on designing the E-models since their inception, so I thought it only fitting to place him with one of our best technicians.”

Ludwig finished with a slightly smug smile on his face then he too leant back in his chair as if waiting to see if Berwald would argue with being told that he was regarded so highly. 

He decided not to as he felt a faint blush creeping up onto his face at the compliment from his superior.

“Well… what should I do?” Berwald asked. Though he still wasn’t 100% content with the idea, it was only 5 weeks, and perhaps he could learn a thing or two about programming from Sigurd that would help him figure out whatever was going on with T1. On that thought however, Berwald couldn’t help but feel a little anxious about the fact that he now knew that Ludwig thought so highly of him and yet only yesterday he’d disobeyed his orders and, in essence, stolen Avipol property. 

Fidgeting in his chair, Berwald cast his gaze to the floor for a moment and adjusted his glasses on his nose. 

“Nothing that you usually wouldn’t. Sigurd will be almost like an assistant to you, a partner, so just show him what you do and represent Avipol in the best way that you can, which I know you will.” Ludwig said as he picked his pen back up and pressed it to the paper, “Is there anything else that you need?”

Shaking his head, Berwald stood up and tucked the chair back under the desk,

“No, that’s everything. Thanks.” he said, and Ludwig nodded with a strained smile before returning his attention back to his paperwork. 

Stepping out into the corridor and closing the door gently behind him, Berwald leant against it for a moment and just thought. He had long become accustomed to working alone with just the androids for company and the occasional interaction with Ludwig, and the fact that he now knew that Sigurd was such an important figure in android development and design made him a little nervous. But he still couldn’t help but think that he could learn a thing or two from Sigurd about Timo’s behaviour, so perhaps it wouldn’t be all bad. Plus, his inner robotics nerd was more than a little thrilled for the opportunity to work with a brand new E-model.

Pushing himself away from the door, Berwald made his way back to his lab. Upon opening the door and stepping back inside, he found Sigurd on the floor with his legs crossed at Eduard’s feet, trailing wires through a port at the back of his shins, the pink of his tongue poking out in concentration. Though when he heard Berwald enter the room he looked up and scrambled to his feet and Eduard turned on the spot. 

“I hope I’m not intruding. I didn’t realise that you weren’t aware of my being here.” he said, and Berwald felt a little bad that he’d probably made him feel uncomfortable.

“It’s alright. Happy to have you here. I was just surprised, that’s all.” Berwald said honestly and watched as Sigurd exhaled softly. He was a slight man, with sharp features and fair hair, and was quietly spoken and reserved. Though Berwald wasn’t one to judge or stereotype, Sigurd didn’t seem the type to be a high profile android and AI programmer, yet there was no denying that Eduard was impressive.

“So. What’s his processing speed?” Berwald nodded toward Eduard as he crossed the room and closed the gap between them.

“6000 megabits.” Sigurd said a little proudly, glancing at Eduard then to Berwald.

“Per _second_?” Berwald had to stop his mouth gaping open as Sigurd nodded.

“He has built in Robotic Process Automation too, or RBA, which really helps elevate him from older models. This kind of technology doesn’t come cheap though.”

Berwald laughed a little at this, knowing full well that although androids were becoming the way forward, they were still so new to the world and still outside of the affordable range for a lot of businesses to own, let alone people. The T-models were only a few years old and yet had quickly become outdated, hardly worth anything these days hence why Avipol wasn’t too concerned about scrapping T1MO. 

“How much?” Berwald asked tentatively.

Sigurd regarded him for a moment before a small laugh escaped his lips and he patted Eduard on the back, “£170k.”

Berwald whistled, eyebrows shooting far up his forehead. He knew the E-models probably came with a hefty price tag, but hadn’t expected that figure.

“Eduard is one of a kind though, a unique design, which can drive the price up of course.” Sigurd continued as though he felt the need to defend the price point, but Berwald just shrugged,

“Seems reasonable to me for the tech, just a shame that I wouldn’t earn anything close to that in at least 10 working years.” Berwald said, a small smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth. 

Sigurd smiled a little bashfully, his eyes following Berwald as he took a seat at his desk. He popped his knuckles as he stared at the code on the screen and felt Sigurds presence as he lingered behind him.

“Do you want me to talk you through his programming? I don’t have much else to do then I’ll be out of your hair for a couple hours.” he said quietly.

Berwald understood the bare basics of the code before him, and unless Sigurd had hours to go through it then he probably won’t understand a lot of it, but Berwald was intrigued nonetheless as he nodded and pushed the keyboard in Sigurds direction and watched as he leant over his shoulder and his fingers flew across it.

  
  


-01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011-

By the time 4:30pm rolled around, Berwald was mentally drained from spending the day interacting with another person rather than work in solitude. Sigurd has clocked out at 4pm and left Eduard powered down in the lab until Monday, and Berwald found himself staring at the android as he stood in the corner of the room. 

There was a lot more to coding and programming than Berwald had thought when it came to the E-models, and Eduards code was nothing like Timo’s nor the voice and comprehension upgrade that Berwald had installed just last night. He didn’t know much more than he had this morning, and was still in the dark about Timo’s behaviour. But now Berwald was more intrigued than ever after the conversation he’d had with Sigurd about machine law and command. 

They hadn’t spoken that much throughout the day, mostly working in silence as Sigurd worked on Eduard and Berwald ploughed through his list of parts that he needed to order for Monday, but just before lunch they’d got onto the topic of machine comprehension. Without giving any indication about T1, Berwald had asked Sigurd if the androids could disobey command. 

Sigurd hadn’t really given a straight answer, saying something about RBA that he mentioned earlier, and that though androids couldn’t disobey command, they could simulate reactions and responses to situations beyond their control if programmed to do so. They couldn’t directly disobey a command, but they could alter how they completed the command based on circumstance. 

In a way, this eased Berwalds mind when it came to Timo catching the ball with his right hand as of course he physically couldn’t use his left and had just calculated his way around a problem. But even with that said, he couldn’t stop thinking about how he had come down the stairs in the middle of the night to find he had self activated and was looking in the mirror as though he was aware of himself, or the fact that he had the name of his sister and his nephew stored in his database even after a system wipe. 

Flicking the lights off, Berwald silently nodded goodnight to Eduard before he closed and locked the door to the lab.

“Have a safe journey home.” The same android that had greeted Berwald this morning said as he left and Berwald turned to smile at it and wish it a good evening before he remembered that it was just a machine. He had gotten so used to interacting with Sigurd already that he forgot for a moment that the concierge android couldn’t comprehend, let alone have a good evening.

Shaking his head in spite of himself, Berwald unlocked his car and got in.

It didn’t take him long to drive home, but once he’d pulled his car into the driveway and turned the engine off Berwald just sat for a moment. All day he’d been fighting internally with himself about whether to scrap Timo or not, but every time the thought crossed his mind he couldn’t bring himself to. 

Pulling on hard on the handle, Berwald threw the car door open and dragged himself out. The door closed with a slam and the lights flashed twice as he locked the car with the keyfob and opened the front door to his house. Once he was inside, it was as though he could feel Timo’s presence in what was normally an empty house. For the first time in a long time, Berwald was coming home to something, someone.

Tossing his keys on the sideboard, Berwald glanced at himself in the mirror that Timo was looking at himself in as he stopped in front of him as he stood exactly where he’d left him draped under the blanket in the corner of the hallway. 

Taking the blanket between his fingers, Berwald tugged on it and let it slip from Timo and fall in a heap by his feet. Then he hesitated for a moment, his hand hovering beside Timo’s ear as he watched the pulsing blue glow of the light beside his activation switch indicating his standby mode. Compared to Eduard, Timo was in a sorry state, and Berwald knew that if he wanted to keep him he needed to do something about his specs and fast. After his system error this morning and the fact that it had caused him to overheat wasn’t a good sign and activating him was risky, but Berwald needed to confirm something if only to stop the nagging at the back of his head.

Bringing his hand to the activation switch, Berwald pressed it and watched as Tino’s head raised and his eyes opened then listened to the whirring of his OS as it took him a couple of seconds to recognise him. Once he had and his eyes had flashed green to confirm they lit up purple and his smile returned.

“Hello Berwald.” he greeted, and Berwald found himself smiling back at the fact that his error warning lights were no longer flashing and no damage had been done to his processor after the overheat.

“Hello Timo." Berwald said lowly, then stood and stared at T1 for a moment as though he was waiting for himself to decide that keeping Timo was a bad idea. But as he looked at his face and placid expression he knew that he couldn't scrap him. 

He took in a breath, the smile still on his face, "I’ve thought of what your purpose is. I want you to be my friend.”

-01100010 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101011-

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh I'm not sure on the pacing but otherwise I'm really into this AU now :)
> 
> I'm looking forward to writing Berwald and Sigurd's interactions as I haven't written Sve and Nor both before together, plus I'm excited to play around with both of their characters. Sig might be a little different in this story from how I've written him in others so I hope you don't mind!
> 
> Also huge credit to Tolyys for helping me design Timo and who came up with the idea for the lights and indicators on his body! 
> 
> Anyway, thanks so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this!
> 
> See you next chapter!
> 
> -lumassen x


	3. Chapter 3.

** Chapter 3. **

Now that Berwald was wide awake and staring at the ceiling, there wasn’t really much hope that he’d be able to get back to sleep. It was dark outside still, and when he’d rolled over to glance at the clock when he first roused from his sleep he saw that it was just past 1am and he’d only managed to sleep for a little over an hour since going to bed. 

He’d spent the majority of his evening hunched over his laptop, scrolling thread after thread on android forums trying to figure out what exactly to  _ do _ with T1. He’d shorted out twice in the time Berwald had him activated and was trying to run a diagnostics check, so eventually he’d given up and dragged himself to bed when his brain began to hurt. But he couldn’t stop thinking about it - about  _ him _ . 

Throwing the duvet off and getting out of bed, Berwald exhaled sharply as he plucked his dressing gown from where it was draped over the back of the chair at his desk and slipped it on. As he took himself downstairs, Berwald thought about the fact that Timo was his. The other androids at Avipol belonged to the company, and Berwald always felt as though he were treading on eggshells when working on them, worried by the fact that they were expensive and he could easily void the warranty on one if he soldered a wire to the wrong circuit board or ordered the wrong part. He also was beginning to grow tired and fed up of just  _ fixing _ the androids. He wanted to see what they could do and what they were capable of if he were allowed to tinker with them. Berwald was, quite frankly, a nerd, and he was fascinated by them; and now finally Timo was his own to experiment with. 

Once Berwald was downstairs, he stopped in the kitchen doorway for a moment, his hand hovering over the light switch on the wall. In the darkness of the room Timo was standing stationary in the corner by the fridge, the indicator lights that covered his body glowing faintly. 

Berwald had taken Timo out of his Avipol uniform, and so now that he was stood with his bodywork and frame uncovered, the ports on his right side were visible, and the green charging light blinked green at near full battery. Blue lights glowed at the top of his right arm, signalling he was set to full volume, and the single one by his power switch at his ear shone yellow while he was in standby mode. The lights that were situated on his legs to signal his balance and stability and the ones at the base of his neck used to display any system errors however were concerning, as they were currently red. In the darkness, the dull glow of the different lights across Timo’s body cast shadows across him, and a sense of eeriness surrounded him. When the kitchen light flickered on at the flip of the switch beneath Berwalds fingers, it flooded the room in a fluorescence that brought him out of the shadows. 

Squinting for a moment in the harsh light while his eye adjusted, Berwald crossed the room and unplugged the charging cable from Timo’s torso, making a mental note as he let the cable drop to the floor to search for a cheaper electricity supplier. If he really was going to keep Timo and charge him often then his bills were sure to skyrocket. 

As Berwald studied Timo, he looked at the boxiness of his shoulders, the harsh lines of his chestplate and the bare ball-joints of his limbs and suddenly he seemed so dated compared to the E-type, Eduard, that Sigurd was working on. Although coding and AI might not be his speciality, bodywork and android anatomy certainly was, and Berwald felt inspired after meeting Eduard; and Timo was quickly becoming a project.

Placing a hand behind T1’s ear, Berwald powered him up and watched as he activated. It seemed that each time Timo booted up it took him longer and longer to register Berwalds face, but when he finally did and his eyes flashed green before returning to their default purple colour his face broke out into the generic robotic smile that Berwald had come to associate with Timo personally. 

"Hello Berwald. The time is 1:37am. It’s late." he said, and Berwald chuckled a little to himself at the bluntness. Even after many years of working with androids he still could never quite get used to the way they spoke - especially the more outdated models.

"Hi Timo. Can ya take a seat?" 

Stepping back a pace or two over the kitchen tiles, Berwald pulled out one of the chairs from beneath the dining table. Despite the red warning lights, Timo's stability wasn't too bad, and he was still able to cross the floor to the chair without much trouble. Though Berwald couldn't help but notice that he always seemed to be leaning to the right, his balance and weight distribution most likely thrown off by the absence of his left arm. 

It took him a moment once he’d reached the chair, but eventually Timo sat, and Berwald flopped into a chair opposite.

“So I’ve been thinking more about your purpose,” Berwald began, pausing to whet his lips as he studied Timo and really thought about what he was doing,

“ _ Friend,”  _ Timo repeated the new word that Berwald had introduced to him, _ “ _ is not a purpose that I am f-familiar with, nor one that my programming will be capable of running. Please refer to my user manual.” he finished with a slow, mechanical blink, and Berwald let out a breath. 

“Well, see a friend is, uh, they just help people. It’s not really a purpose. I won’t give you any commands, so you can just do what you want I suppose.”

Berwald chose his words carefully, and sat forward a little with his chin inquisitively in his palm as he watched to see how Timo would react, looking for any signs of what could only be described as self awareness that he caught a glimpse of the night before. But Timo just sat perfectly still, hands placed neatly on his knees, 

“Alright, I will await instruction when y-you are ready.” he said, his face completely expressionless, as it should be.

Dropping his face into his hands for a moment, Berwald sighed and shook his head, wondering if he’d just imagined it all and was losing his mind. Perhaps this was a sign that he’s been working with machines too long, and he was starting to see human traits within them.

“No, Timo, what I mean is that I won’t give you any commands, any instructions. You won’t have a  _ purpose _ , you’ll just  _ be _ .”

Berwald dragged his hands across his face then slumped back in the chair, 

“ _ I’m tryin’ to explain the meaning of existence to a damn robot _ .” he muttered to himself

“Thank you for clarification, Berwald. I will turn on power-saving mode. Please reactivate me when you are ready to give me instruction.”

As Timo began to power down, Berwald swore to himself under his breath in frustration as he rose from his chair to re-boot Timo impatiently before he’d finished shutting down properly. His head had barely lowered when Berwald pressed the switch behind his ear, and suddenly a loud whirring sound came from T1 causing Berwald to flinch away.

All of the lights on Timo’s body turned red, and when he raised his head to look at Berwald his eyes were white and devoid of all colour. His face was drawn into a frown and Berwald felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle as he shrank back a little under the androids gaze.

“Unauthorised personnel.” he said, as though he no longer recognised Berwald, and began to list errors as his internal parts could be heard whirring away at a dangerous capacity,

“Access denied. Access d-denied. No primary user has been registered. A critical error has occurred. Please contact my manufact-”

Then, Timo stopped mid sentence and stood up suddenly with such force that he sent the chair toppling over behind him with a crash and his knees caught the edge of the table, sending an empty coffee mug to the ground where it shattered into pieces.

“Berwald,” he said, the red critical warning lights now flashing frantically as Timo raised his hand in front of him to look down at it and wiggled the ends of his fingers. Then T1’s head snapped up and Berwald froze under that same petrified look of confusion on his face once more, 

“Who am I?”

Timo’s eyes were still white and out of facial recognition, yet somehow he still knew Berwald’s name and seemed suddenly self aware. 

Opening his mouth to speak, Berwald found that no words came out, the back of his throat dry as his breaths hitched up into panicked rasps.

“Berwald,” T1 said again, then stumbled as he took a step forward and tripped over the legs from the fallen chair, “I’m forget- forgetting. Corrupted files. Operating sy-system shutting down. Failover mode - help - activating.”

Timo’s mouth stopped moving to simulate his speech toward the end of his sentence as his body suddenly went still and rigid. Berwald watched as the lights that had been pulsing rapidly in warning only moments ago faded out, and the white light behind Timo’s eyes died. Instead of lowering his head and closing his eyes like he should do when powering down, it was as though Timo had just shut down completely, all the lights but the one on the side of his head signalling OS system function had gone out until finally, that light died too.

“Wait, no. No no no,” Berwald leapt up from the chair and cupped the side of Timo’s face with one hand while the other found its way behind his ear and pressed the activation switch over and over again, but he didn’t boot up again. 

Taking a step back, Berwald’s hands came away from T1 and flew up into his hair, fingernails dragging across his scalp as he took two, three more steps back and just stared incredulously at Timo.

Adrenaline suddenly coursed through his body as Berwald even dared to think what he might have just witnessed, something that he was taught would never happen, never be possible.

At least he wasn’t losing his mind after all, but the thought only instilled more concern rather than eased it. And what concerned Berwald the most, is that he wasn’t afraid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the shortest chapter I've ever written but its Been a While and I'm really rusty with this fic so please accept this and I'll do better next time 
> 
> ty for reading <3
> 
> -lumassen x


End file.
